Dark Knight Reborn: Episode 1: Alliances and Assemblies
by Lord Jake the Warrior
Summary: One Month after the release of Gotham City from Bane's tyrannical rule, John Blake is still undecided about his role of the New Batman. But this all changes when a mysterious figure starts doing the Dark Knight's work for him, and Blake must learn what it is to be the Bat. Partially set in my IrregularVerse
1. Chapter 1

**Gotham City**

**23****rd**** February 2021**

**1 Month after Bane's Occupation**

The mugger hit the ground running, his polished shoes scraping on the gravel. He sprinted as fast as he could, attempting to get away from the grim black shadow descending on him.

He wasn't fast enough.

Screaming, he was lifted up by his left ankle, his flat cap floating serenely off down the street.

"Pino Maroni." The shadow coldly stated. "Youngest son of Salvatore Maroni, nicknamed 'The Italian', infamous mob boss, killed nine years ago by Harvey Two-Face Dent. Now look at what his family's reduced to. Robbing spare change off shopkeepers and prostitutes."

"A-Are you… hi-him?" Pino asked, trying to ignore the liquid running down his shirt.

The shadow gave a dark chuckle.

"Who? The _Bat_man? Haven't you heard? The Bat's dead."

Pino didn't respond, so the voice continued, spinning a staff in one hand.

"Of course, that doesn't mean anything to you lot, does it? One whisper of a Bat, you all go running. Criminals," he pronounced, shooting out, grabbing Pino's jacket and pulling him closer, leaning into the light as he did so "Are a superstitious, cowardly lot."

Pino stared in shock.

"Jesus," he stammered out "You're just a-"

"Finish that thought," The boy interrupted, flicking out a serrated knife "And… well, you've seen that Joker fellow, haven't you?"

Pino gulped very audibly, and worked his jaw around before timidly asking: "Wh…What do you want?"

"Lots of things." The boy chuckled "A world without crime, a lack of corruption and a nice stiff cup of Earl Grey. But what I want now, more than anything…" He leaned in towards Pino, so that all he could see was his cold blue eyes, glaring at him through the dynamo mask.

"_Is the Batman_."

_**A/N: Relatively new idea for me here-never done an episodic series, so new territory with old characters.**_

_**This is partially set in my IrregularVerse, but it's not necessarily a Crossover, so I'm not putting it there. It's also not necessarily needed to read that to understand this. Basically all you need to know is that at this point in time, the Irregulars are a global-spanning detective force that only people high-up in government know about but who keep track of all people of interest-high class criminals, ancient conspiracies and, of course, giant bat vigilantes. I'll explain more as we go on.**_

_**Please leave a review or comment, and please don't ask me where the rest of my stories are on being updated. They are not, repeat NOT being abandoned, but I've got so much on my plate at the moment that this is getting done over Doctor Who (Which is Class-1 Heresy in my British sensibilities) and only because It. Would. Not. Leave. Me. Alone. So, please, just a bit of sympathy for the poor A-Levels student, s'il vous plait?**_

_**God I'm speaking French.**_

_**Note on Timelines: For some weird, unexplainable reason, I've always pictured Dark Knight as taking place in Summer 2012. Taking that as read, Batman Begins takes place in 2011, and as Bruce is 30 then, that means he was born in 1981, meaning the Waynes were killed 1989, and as Rises is set 8 years after Dark Knight, Rises is set in 2020. As it is clearly winter during the final act of Rises, here I've taken it as either late December or early January of 2021. I'll draw up a timeline on my profile.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Batcave**

**Gotham City**

**24****th**** February 2021**

John Blake privately reflected that he was a _shit _Batman.

It had been one month since Bane had been defeated. One month since the bomb had gone off on Gotham's shores. One month since Bruce Wayne, the _real _Batman, had died to save Gotham.

One month since he'd picked Blake, fucking Blake, as his successor.

In that one month, Blake had done _fuck all_.

He hadn't gone out and fought crime. He hadn't used any of the gadgets. He sure as hell hadn't _told _anyone that he was-technically-Batman.

In the past month, Gotham and its residents had been placed under extreme scrutiny by the outside world. The government was expecting fallout after the bomb went off, despite Mr. Fox's assurances that it was meant to be a _clean _energy source, so there wouldn't _be_ any radiation. There was still hullabaloo about who would be Mayor, not that Blake could be arsed, after Hill died during Bane's occupation.

More importantly, however, Commissioner Gordon was under investigation.

Blake supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. He would have gladly arrested Gordon himself, before the shitstorm that was Gotham during Bane. But during those days he got to really know Gordon. There was only him, Gordon and a handful of others during that time, and he was in charge of watching Gordon. He was the only volunteer, the rest of the cops were too disgusted by what Gordon had done. But he heard Gordon, during the night, crying silently over a picture of his wife and kids, and he couldn't bring himself to hate him. This lie had destroyed Gordon's life just as much as it had destroyed Gotham.

Now, after what happened on the bridge, Blake sympathised with Gordon more. He had seen first-hand that the law wasn't enough.

But did that make him worthy of being Batman?

God, he needed a drink.

Sighing, he stepped off the platform and watched as it sunk into the floor. Then he walked to the lift and hit the button.

**Thomas And Martha Wayne Home For Orphaned Children**

After Bruce Wayne gave Wayne Manor to the city as an orphanage, all the kids from St Swithin's and the other orphanages had moved in. Blake, finding himself out of work and in need of money, had volunteered to work at the orphanage for a small fee, and bed and board.

Getting a can of coke from the fridge, he walked into the main rec room, the only room in the house with a TV big enough for all the kids to sit in front of. The majority of Wayne's stuff had been sold off, but the orphanage still got a generous annual stipend to pay all their expenses.

"Hi Mr Blake." The only other person in the room said, a red headed girl idly flicking through the channels.

"Hi Carrie." Blake said, glancing at the girl he'd gotten to know so well during Bane's invasion, as people had taken to calling it. He idly glanced at the TV, then looked away, before doing a double take at what he'd just seen.

"Wait, go back there a second." He said.

Carrie frowned, but pressed the button. It was GCN, with a picture of about five people strung up from various lampposts, gags on their mouths.

"For those of you just joining us, this is the shocking news that the Batman may be on our streets once more," Vicky Vale spoke over videos of the police helping the people down from their perches. "A staggering twenty petty criminals have been found strung up at no less than seven spots in the city, each with a note pinned to them with, reportedly, a list of their crimes and a signature."

Here the camera zoomed in on the note, or, more specifically, the bottom of it, where the words were easy to see:

With Compliments

The Dark Knight

"Wow." Carrie said, then fell into rapid pace rambling, growing more and more shrill. Blake left the room quickly, partly because he wanted to think but mostly to plan for the windows to be replaced after she grew loud enough to shatter glass.

Whether he was Batman or not was irrelevant. Someone was in his city, and he needed to know who.

It was time for Batman to make an appearance again.

_**A/N: Bit of boring filler, but I thought it was necessary to see exactly where Blake is before we get down to the thick of it.**_

_**Three guesses who Carrie is? Give you a hint: she's a Robin. I am planning to do a story on what Blake and a couple of others were doing during Dark Knight Rises, just to get my favourite pieces of Dark Knight Returns and No Man's Land out of the way.**_

_**Also, you have timeline? Soon, my pets, soon.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Lincoln Street**

**Gotham City**

**24****th**** February 2021**

Blake kept down low on the rooftops, trying to be unnoticeable.

He said, whilst wearing half a fucking Batsuit.

It transpired that the suit was too fucking tall for him, so he had to settle for the mask and the cape. And the belt. No way was he going without the belt.

Research on the computer in the Batcave had discovered the general locations of the sites the criminals had been dropped off from. Blake may not have been a detective for very long, but he knew how to figure out an area of operations. He'd done it all the time during Bane, so he should.

He wasn't scared of what would happen if he ran into some common thug. That wouldn't be his first street fight, and he could deal with that. What he was scared of was if the copycat was something else.

A clatter in an alleyway. A cut off scream.

Blake turned, instinctively running to the other side of the building.

The copycat could wait. Someone was in trouble. In _his _city.

There would be blood.

**Angel Street**

**Gotham City**

**24****th**** February 2021**

Blake leaned over the side of the building, his street-rat instincts taking in the sight below him.

Five guys, two with knives. One girl. Wasn't hard to figure it out.

"Come on, bitch!" the leader, a brute, or 'an ugly fucker', as Blake put it, laughed "Least you can do is put out!"

"P…Please." The girl begged, trembling.

"Shut up! Show the bitch the knife, Ben!"

"Right boss!" one of the men advanced menacingly on her, brandishing the serrated blade.

Blake moved to jump. He didn't know how to operate the cape, but he didn't care. He wanted to break something-preferably those bastard's bones.

But before he could, a shadow fell over the thugs, and all-including Blake-turned to see the new participant in this drama.

The first thing Blake recognized was that the figure was short-barely five foot. He wore a deerstalker cap, and a plain black shirt and pants. He carried a long, metal rod, a bo staff.

The figure spoke.

"'The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him…'"

"What the fuck?"

"'And fortune, on his damned quarrel, smiling, showed like a rebel's whore.'"

"Piss off, kid!"

"'But all's too weak, for brave Macbeth… Well, he deserves that name…'"

"Ben, get rid of him."

"Right boss." Ben walked up to him, raising his knife threateningly.

"'Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution.'"

In a flash, the figure struck Ben's fingers with the staff, producing an audible crack. Ben dropped his knife, and the figure kicked it into a grate.

"'Like valour's minion, carved out his message, till he faced the slave;'"

The other four advanced on him, but the figure barely noticed them, instead raising his eyes to the sky, and Blake got his first look at him.

_Jesus, he's just a kid. _Blake thought.

The kid looked about thirteen, with black hair and green eyes, and an innocent expression on his face that was in contrast to the intelligence in his eyes. A smirk fell on his face, and he finally spoke again.

"'Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him.'"

One of the thugs ran at him, but the figure sprung into the air and wrapped the bo around the guy's neck, sending him careening into the other thug. Another was tripped up by the end, hitting his head on the sidewalk. The boss tried to ran, but the figure threw a red boomerang-_Wait, what?_ Blake thought-and the boss was tripped up.

All the thugs finished, the kid walked up to the girl, who was kneeling on the ground, and helped her up.

"You're safe now." He assured her.

The girl looked at him in wonder.

"Are you him?" she whispered.

He laughed.

"No. But I work with him. Or will be, soon. Can you get home on your own?"

She nodded, and he waved her off.

As she rounded the corner, he turned his head to the sky again.

"You can come out now." He said "I know you're there."

Blake swore silently.

"Actually, stay there. I'll come up to you." He raised his hand, and a wire shot out, grasping the edge of the building. There was a whirr, and the boy shot up to grasp the edge of the building.

Blake instinctively offered him a hand up. He accepted, and soon Blake was staring down at him from close up.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Blake." The figure said, grinning at him. "The name's Drake. Tim Drake."

_**A/N: YAY! TIMMY! I'VE MISSED YOU!**_

_**What the-**_

_**HI AUTHOUR! IT'S MEEEEE!**_

_**Oh fuck no!**_

_**YEP! BATMITE IS HERE!**_

_**Batmite, what the fuck are you doing here?**_

_**WELL, IT'S HARDLY LIKE I'M GOING TO BE IN THE STORY, IS IT? WON'T FIT WITH NOLAN'S THEME! SO I DECIDED TO HIJACK THE AUTHOUR'S NOTES!**_

_**For the love of fuck, stop talking like that.**_

_**LIKE WHAT?**_

_**LIKE THIS!**_

_**Sorry.**_

_**Fuck off.**_

_**Anyway, so it only made sense that Tim be an Irregular-he's almost as intelligent as Bruce, so being a scion of Holmes just made too much sense.**_

_**There won't be anything like a villain in this first story, or probably in the second. In addition, season 1 is more about John Blake growing into his role as the Bat, with all that it implies-especially The World's (Second) Greatest Detective (If I need to tell you who the first one is, you have no business being here) Season 2 is the one with it's own story arc. But we have 27 episodes to get through before then. See you next part, which will be more or less the second-to-last.**_

_**BYEEE!**_

_**FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK, BATMITE!**_


End file.
